Abstract

It has long been known that fossiliferous limestones occur in the Jaffna peninsula in the extreme north of Ceylon, but until recently they have received little attention, and nothing approaching a detailed account of them appears to have been published.

At various times between 1914 and 1916 (inclusive) in the capacity of Assistant Mineral Surveyor for Ceylon, I carried out geological investigations over a stretcli of more than 800 miles of the coast-line of the island. During the progress of this work sedimentary beds were frequently met with; and the best-developed group of these—the Miocene—is dealt with in this paper. It will be shown that the Jaffna limestones are of Miocene age, that similar limestones occur elsewhere in Ceylon, and that Miocene rocks of other fades also occur.

I am at a disadvantage in that all my field-notes, being the property of tlie Mineral Survey, remain in Ceylon ; but sufficient information is contained in private note-books to allow of a general description.

Prior to Dr. Davies's determination of the contained fossils the age of the Jaffna limestones was very uncertain; for, while I recognized them as Tertiary, and regarded them as probably Eocene, a previous author believed them to be of Cretaceous age. Sir Emerson Tennant regarded them as a recent coral-formation, and this view is still held by engineers and others who have occasion to deal with them; while Mr. J. S. Boake, in a very ingenious, if entirely imaginary, representation of Ceylon geology, depicted them as covering

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